It all began in the November of 2016- my very first trip abroad. For me it was a dream come true as well as an eye-opener. A colleague and I were accompanying a group of our students to France for an exchange program, so it was a work trip not a touristy one. But for the first time I discovered the pleasure of seeing new places, sampling a different cuisine and soaking up so many different experiences. I reveled in it all. It was heady and (as I realised later) it was also addictive. I had been well and truly bitten by the travel bug.
My next eye-opener was when we hosted a group of students from France, along with their teachers; on another exchange program. It was our turn to take them around our city and show them the sights. That’s when it began to dawn on me how little I knew about the city where I’ve spent most of my life. Not just that but also how superficially I viewed it and how much I took it for granted. For the first time I observed my city through ‘foreign’ eyes, warts and all. And I wanted to know more about it.
Eye-opener number three was the heritage walks that I started taking. It’s true that the best way to learn about a city is by walking around it. Walking compels you to slow down, stop, observe and reflect. You notice details that you otherwise might have missed. Not having to worry about getting a parking spot is another advantage. And when heritage walks are combined with food walks it becomes an inviting combo of history, food and exercise!
By now this addiction had me firmly in its hold. I began planning trips around the country with like-minded friends. Organising these trips was yet another eye-opener, thanks mainly to the internet. Looking up train routes, stations, roads, weather conditions, nearby towns and cities was a lesson in geography. Links with tempting names like 10 best places to visit, 10 best things to do in ______ (place) would show up on my screen, giving me a severe case of FOMO. I began to chafe at the constraints of my job- which funded my trips but didn’t allow me to just pack up and leave whenever the mood struck me. So, I began to look up places that were closer by: day trips, overnight trips, weekend trips. Luckily for me, I’m blessed to live in a city that’s surrounded by hills, rivers and dams. That set me off on another spiral- to visit these scenic spots as often as possible, before they got ruined by over-tourism and ‘development’. A different kind of FOMO had set in.
Like a photographer looks at the world through an imaginary lens (except when toting a camera), and focuses on what would make a good shot; I too began to look at each place I visited from a different perspective. There was more curiosity, more interest now. Where does this road lead? Does this monument have a story? Who lived here? What were their lives like? What were those times like? The questions were endless and the search for answers was like going back in time. I delved into travel books, books on local history, articles by travel bloggers, historians and food writers. My collection of books began to grow because I managed to pick up books, leaflets and brochures from almost every place I visited. Being a history buff helped because now I was able to connect dots, make connections and have a deeper understanding of the context to events.
Living in a country where most states are the size of a small European country, each with its own language, history, topography and food means that there will never be any dearth of places to visit. Or history to learn. Or food to relish! My bucket list gets items ticked off while new additions keep finding their way to it. There are places I would love to re-visit, dishes whose memory makes me smack my lips, experiences that I relive and smile to myself and some on which I look back with a little regret- mainly because I couldn’t make the most of them.
I am now a full-fledged tourist in my country- but not the kind that rushes from one place to the next, checking items of a list and taking innumerable selfies in each spot. My travel companions and I firmly pick quality over quantity, local food over the usual chicken tikka masala and kadhai paneer and destinations that are off the beaten track. In a country as vast and diverse as ours, there are plenty of ‘hidden gems’ waiting to be visited. There are local people who are eager to share their knowledge with us because we have a shared legacy, a shared heritage.
And I continue to be a tourist in my own city as well. In this fast changing world, every hill, every old structure, every tree even is precious because it may not be there the next day. I take nothing for granted now- because I want to create my own storehouse of memories that will sustain me in the coming days when my city may have changed beyond recognition. “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller. Even if it is the same things!
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